A week after TNM carried out a report on alleged irregularities in the payment of wages to NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) workers in Andhra's East Godavari district for nearly 20 months, the state authorities have initiated an enquiry into the matter. Taking The News Minute report into cognisance, state Panchayat Raj Rural Development (PR&RD) has tasked a team of officials from the Commissioner's office under the supervision of the Director of the State Employment Guarantee Scheme (SEGS).
Human Rights Forum (HRF), District President Muthyala Srinivasa Rao and Illa Kishore Kumar of Haqdarshak, an organisation working for rural communities were asked to present before the enquiry team on Wednesday. The activists who conducted a fact finding visit earlier have alleged ‘irregularities’' and ‘negligence’ on the part of EGS mandal/field level officials. Around 500 workers from the Chirutapudi village in Ambajipet mandal have claimed that their complaints were not heeded despite multiple appeals. The labourers have also claimed that the local authorities have failed to issue job cards on time and failed to record the work done by the labourers efficiently leading to prolonged delay in disbursing the wages.
The workers who attended the enquiry have alleged that the wages were not given for the exact number of working days in some cases while in some cases the money was withdrawn without even constructing the toilets. NREGA State Director Chinna Tataiah and Joint Director Kalyan Chakravarthy , Deputy Commissioner G Jyothi and Social Audit Director K Srikantha, District Water Management Authority (DWMA) Project Director A Venkata Lakshmi and Joint Collector (JC) J Raja Kumari along with other officials have conducted enquiry in the village.
The state officials are said to have pulled up the field officers for "irregularities and discrepancies" in the due procedures and assured the wagers for taking appropriate measures. The officials have also stated that the two years records of NREGS works would be made available at Gram Panchayat to enable the wagers/labourers to file their grievances.
Illa Kishore Kumar speaking to TNM said "The Director has mentioned that the government would pay money to workers if proven that the workers have done the work."
As HRF demanded the officials to give enough time for the workers given the enquiry at the short notice. The officials assured a special social audit besides a detailed enquiry by the quality control team and Vigilance team and social audit team.
However, HRF in a written representation to the enquiry team demanded that the NREGA workers who are affected by not receiving wages for the months should not be burdened with proving the "veracity of their complaints".